


tidal pull

by Sanctioned_Chaos



Category: One Piece
Genre: ASL Brothers, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Brother-Sister Relationships, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Mostly Gen, Nakamaship, One Shot, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, ace is here for a split second bc i love my child, and also they're the only pair that's romantic, and frobin is here bc obvious reasons, and nami and zoro being that unwilling soulmatched pair, bc they brother-sister af and they're THOSE siblings, but lemme tag asl anyway bc they're ALWAYS, except maybe usopp and kaya down the line, god do i love that tag, i loved the idea of platonic soulmates pirate king and alabasta queen too much fam, it's both, mostly fluff tho, sabo is obscurely mentioned, soulmarks present when the youngest of the pair has reached ten, the ones that are tied by blood but pretend to not know each other lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:53:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21913234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanctioned_Chaos/pseuds/Sanctioned_Chaos
Summary: on the straw hat crew and their soulmatesorwhere luffy will be king so it's only right that his soulmate be a queen, zoro and nami know nothing about each other but are already every bit as bitchy as their canon relationship, frobin are depressed but still cute, and usokaya are just cuteeveryone else is sad and i'm so sorry for that
Relationships: Franky/Nico Robin, Monkey D. Luffy & Nefertari Vivi, Nico Robin & Franky, Roronoa Zoro & Nami, Usopp & Kaya
Comments: 7
Kudos: 92





	tidal pull

**Author's Note:**

> just in case you guys didn't read the tags, all soulmate pairs are platonic except for frobin and maybe usokaya
> 
> yes i included ALL the straw hats, currently traveling with the crew or otherwise, bc i can and i will and i love them all

When Luffy’s soulmark comes in, he is eleven years-old and releasing smoke from his ears he’s so excited. He’s not supposed to know who it is but he shakes Ace awake that morning, eyes bright with so much wonder, and tells him that his soulmate is a princess. That somewhere, out in that great sea they’ve both sworn to explore and make their own, she’s waiting for him, just like he’s waiting for her. And he runs all the way to the coast cliffside just to scream into the horizon, clutching his hat where it rests over his head-

“I’M COMING FOR YOU!”

Ace knows. Ace stumbles out of the house bleary-eyed to follow him at the asscrack of dawn. The fourteen year-old plops himself down on the grass where his little brother had fallen after shouting his promise and he is silent as he listens to Luffy giggle. He’s smiling softly by the time Luffy’s grinning up at the sky, pulling at the younger boy’s clothes in a demand to see the proof on his skin. Luffy rolls over quickly enough, snapping the hem of his shirt upwards and proudly brandishing the symbol of a dove resting just under his right arm, stretching small wings along his side. It’s pale against the expanse of sun-browned skin and no bigger than Ace’s palm with how tiny Luffy still is at this age.

He ruffles Luffy's hair, freckled face breaking out in a wide grin as he listens to his little brother giggle. More family for the both of them. Ace can't wait to meet her.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Elsewhere, Igaram worries over a young Nefertari Vivi, bouncing on her toes as she tells Chaka and Pell about the new development. Just below the crest of her right shoulder and chestnut-brown amongst the stretch of ivory skin, a grinning monkey wraps its arms and legs around the thin limb. King Cobra bounces with excitement from beside his daughter, lifting her from the marble floors and causing her to squeal happily as the two of them celebrate. Alubarna rejoices at the news of its princess’ soulmatch and, ten years old but wiser than her years, Vivi revels with them- even as she smiles fondly and covers her little monkey with a golden band.

She knows, just as a little grinning boy with a straw hat in the East Blue knows- that her soulmate is going to be a pirate. That he will be Pirate _King_ and she will protect him in this, what little she can. There’s warmness inside her chest and she smiles to herself, in the stillness of the night and staring out to sea, he’ll be along. All she has to do is wait.

  
  
  


* * *

Kuina is newly twelve when she knocks Zoro on his ass for the fourth time that day and sees the lightly-orange cat resting low on his left hip. It lifts one front paw as if starting to walk and a long tail rises coyly behind it, Kuina snorts at the realization that it’s winking. She asks, because of course she asks, and Zoro- stubborn as he is- tells her it doesn’t matter. It won’t affect his goal and it won’t do any good to distract himself thinking about it. He’s right so she stops and he squares his shoulders to come at her again. She bats him down for the fifth time.

Only days later, she trips. 

Cold and bitter and a mere shade of herself, she glares down at her own grave. Before he leaves, Zoro finally tells her- whispering spitefully to himself as he pays her one last visit before he begins his journey to become the best- that his mark his cold, his soulmate grieving, and that, in that sense, they really do match.

  
  


* * *

Months after Bellemere’s death and accepting Arlong’s deal, Nami barrels out of a pirate hideout. She’s running for her life, panting roughly, and only just escaping the pursuing horde by hiding between a few crates in a back alley when she spies a sea-green tiger staring stoically up at her from the dip of her ankle.

Numbly, she remembers today is her tenth birthday and she bites the inside of her cheek to force the cynical scoff rising up her throat, back down. 

A soulmate.

Yeah right. 

She doesn’t spare it much thought after that- _what does it matter, it won’t help_ \- and the most attention she gives it is a scathing glare when she’s feeling particularly resentful. It doesn’t change a thing.

Weeks pass and Nami wakes up one morning hissing because the tiger on her ankle has gotten so cold it bites the skin it stretches on. She sneers and thinks somehow it’s only right for her soulmate to feel the same grief that she does. It isn’t even noon when she finds herself stealing a large bottle of sake and drinking herself into a stupor. 

She collects no treasure that day.

* * *

Franky gets a birthday cake smashed into his face, courtesy of his snickering little brothers, and he spends the better part of twenty minutes chasing them down for it. Kiwi helps him clean up, wiping off what she can, before she sends him into the bathroom to wash off the rest. She’s yelling at the others in affectionate tones when her sister stops him on his way out and Franky pauses as she points to the back of his neck.

“Did Kiwi miss some?”

Mozu shakes her head and says,“Nii-san, you’re a lucky duck.”

His eyebrows knot together in confusion and she waves him off, walking over to Kiwi to help her get their brothers out of the numerous barrels Franky had lovingly shoved them in.

“Just look in the mirror.”

He washes off the remnants of chocolate frosting and mutilated chiffon before shifting to the side and recognizing it. A white crane rises elegantly on both legs, one wing extended outwards and belying accents of pale purple on snowy feathers. Franky doesn’t really feel anything coming from it, which is odd, but he tries to let warmth and acceptance radiate through the newly-developed bond. A brief spike of heat answers him and then nothing.

It’s enough. He grins.

“SUPERRR!”

* * *

Robin runs to the edge of the island, ducking into the forest as she passes town, and leans against a boulder on the beach, gazing into the blue horizon. Warmth pulses along the stretch of her upper back at odd intervals and she allows herself one small smile as she rests her knees against her cheek. She doesn’t need to see it right now to remember how it looked in lake beside her latest hideout.

The sky blue bull poised mid-charge on the planes of her shoulder-blades grins wolfishly and Nico Robin is ten when she finally lets herself truly breathe in two years. Seaspray fills her lungs and, for a moment, she basks in it- mind locked completely in the moment.

Several years and many sea voyages later, she meets Crocodile, hears the name Pluton, and she holds her breath once more.

He’s her best bet but she doesn’t have to like it. Saul’s words come back to her and perhaps... one day. But not sometime soon.

The memory of her people keeps her going but it’s her mark that keeps her warm at night.

* * *

  
  


Sanji is alone in his cell and he will be alone on the rock before desperation drives him to Zeff.

Chopper is alone at the back of his herd and he will be alone after Hiriluk dies and before Doctorine convinces him, in her own way, that she’s as much his mother as she is his teacher.

Brook wanders the Florian Triangle, alone on a ship of ghosts he can almost see but never touch, and sings a familiar song.

Jinbei mourns his brother and drinks deeply from his sake cup for nights on end. He, too, is alone.

Blessedly, Usopp and Kaya have each other.

  
  


* * *

They are fifteen and for the first time, their marks move.

  
  


Luffy is fifteen, one brother mourned and another at sea, when his dove begins flying. (Vivi’s monkey won’t start climbing all over her until she’s on a ship and Alabasta disappears into the skyline behind her. She cries in her room that night, biting her lip hard enough to draw blood, and her monkey climbs her neck to mime rubbing its cheek against hers.)

Zoro is fifteen, having just collected his reward for the successful capture of a few overly-arrogant pirates, and his cat tries to use him as a scratching post even though they both know he can’t feel it. (Nami’s tiger prowls her skin a year later, restless, dark eyes always judging. She glares at it. It glares back. They ignore each other.)

Robin is fifteen, bruised and on the run, and her bull is eager as can be yet it never charges across the planes of her flesh for too long before settling down. She understands. Grief weighs on us all.(Franky is eleven years into a new life and a cyborg body, and his crane never flies. It merely walks the length of his frame in languid strides, no real destination in mind.)

Usopp is fifteen, sprinting for the mansion on the hill of Syrup village, and his albatross is shaky in flight.(A few months later, Kaya’s armadillo quickly takes to curling into a ball and rolling up and down her arms and back. It’s eager but also cautious all at the same time and it’s so very Usopp that she giggles every time he visits.)

* * *

  
  


Vivi is sixteen, Zoro is nineteen, Nami is eighteen, Robin is twenty-eight, Franky is thirty-six, Usopp and Kaya are seventeen, Sanji is nineteen, Chopper is fifteen, Brook is eighty-eight, and Jinbei is forty-four when Luffy sets out to sea.

**Author's Note:**

> this is shorter than it ought to be but blame the fact that it all started bc i literally JUST woke up from a dream where luffy and vivi, and zoro and nami, were all platonic soulmates respectively but nami and vivi would on to date each other down the line and luffy and zoro are luffyandzoro bc damn if i don't love zoro's devotion to his captain and luffy's innate understanding of zoro's mind
> 
> i want to explore sanji, chopper, brook, and jinbei's soulmate-less living both before luffy and after but that'll probably be for another fic, i want to do a mult-chap work on their travels and dynamics but i'm way too ansty to do it now
> 
> so yea this could become a series?? 
> 
> also all their soulmarks are exactly as oda said each member of the crew would be if they represented an animal, and kaya's i took liberties with bc i definitely pictured her as a bird and albatrosses have special meaning to sailors so i thought she could be usopp's albatross ok bye-


End file.
